The Supreme Court seems to be terribly concerned about global warming and pollution, and we know this because they’ve recently issued a barrage of seemingly arbitrary rules to slow down the number of polluting vehicles in India. The foremost among which is the fact that from now on Insurance companies would require you to furnish a Pollution Under Control Certificate (PUC) when you apply to renew your Insurance. There is one small inconsistency here though, considering that insurance covers last for a year while PUC certificates last 6 months, which means that there is no added pressure for PUC defaulters to get their Pollution certificate in order on time. Although it is important to note that it is mandatory to produce one’s PUC certificate and insurance upon request of a traffic official, while a Registration Card and Tax Token must be produced within 24 hours on request.
Among other insightful changes, the bench that issued these mandates comprised of Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta also took note of the fact that some refilling outlets in the NCR did not have PUC centres. And in a move to curb this have instructed  Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, to ensure that these missing centres be fulfilled within four weeks. Additionally, the EPCA (Environment Pollution Control Authority) has added to that saying that more stringent measures need to be set in place, including well-equipped mobile test centres and a programme to check visibly polluting vehicles.
The EPCA also added that since statistically speaking 96% of all vehicles that appear for the test, pass, there must be something wrong with the system.  They have advised the SC to add penalties to ensure that no inconsistencies slip through the system. Although in our opinion we think that 96% is what you’d expect with new vehicles considering that 4% of the cars in the NCR region would be 4 lakh. That seems like a reasonable number when put in that perspective.
